Chattanooga Railroad Series: Alabama And Chattanooga Railroad

Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad complex at Market Street. There were railroad tracks where the later King Street was constructed. The Alabama and Chattanooga roundhouse can be seen.

Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad (later Alabama Great Southern) site in 1920. Shows junction with Nashville tracks near Main Street

Line used by Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad came around the river after passing Lookout Mountain

Central Passenger Station

Central of Georgia Railroad freight depot is on the right, and Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad (later Alabama Great Southern) complex is just to the north

Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad trains came into town past the Cravens Yards

Crossing Main Street

- photo by John Wilson

A&C Line split off from the Nashville track just before Main Street

- photo by John Wilson

Across Main Street and headed for the depot

- photo by John Wilson

All that remains of spur that led to beer distribution center

- photo by John Wilson

Alabama and Chattanooga track is in view behind sculpture at Main and Broad

- photo by John Wilson

Broad Street crossing

- photo by John Wilson

Cowart Street crossing

- photo by John Wilson

Old baggage shed is one of the city's oldest remaining buildings. The old cobblestone pavement is still intact.

- photo by Wes Schultz

Track is still in place by old baggage shed

- photo by Wes Schultz

Remaining railroad building stood behind the Central Passenger Station that was replaced by the Southern Railway headquarters

- photo by Wes Schultz

The handsome depot at Fort Payne

- photo by Wes Schultz

Fort Payne depot by the old Alabama and Chattanooga tracks

- photo by Wes Schultz

DeKalb Theatre at Fort Payne

- photo by Wes Schultz

Fort Payne has an opera house

- photo by Wes Schultz

Davis Hosiery Mill by the tracks at Fort Payne

- photo by Wes Schultz

Old South mansion at Valley Head, Ala.

- photo by Wes Schultz

Trenton, Ga., depot

- photo by Wes Schultz

Trenton depot is a visitor center

- photo by Wes Schultz

House across from the Trenton depot

- photo by Wes Schultz

A railroad that had been started in the valley between Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain was finally completed to Chattanooga several years after the Civil War.

It was first known as the Wills Valley Railroad, but by the time it was finished the title was changed to the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad. This was the fourth train operating in Chattanooga - not counting the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, which used tracks of the Nashville train from Stevenson, Ala., to Chattanooga.

The flamboyant John C. Stanton from Boston had stepped in to complete it. It was finished between Wauhatchie to Meridian, Miss., by May of 1871.

Stanton also constructed the elaborate Stanton House hotel nearby at the site where the Terminal Station (Chattanooga Choo Choo) was later built.

Stanton also persuaded city officials to move the post office to this section, which was considered quite a distance from the original settlement by the river. The post office was constructed at the corner of King and South Market streets (where the Ellis Hotel was later built).

A depot was constructed at Market and 13th streets for the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad, which entered town from the south along the Nashville and Chattanooga route around Moccasin Bend, then veered away at Montgomery Avenue (Main Street).

The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad also put up a freight depot across the street opposite the post office. Also at the complex were a brick roundhouse with 11 stalls and wooden railroad shops.

Until early in the 1900s there was only a single track on the narrow shelf of land around the base of Lookout Mountain across from Moccasin Bend. It was shared by not only the Nashville train, but also the Memphis and Charleston and the Alabama and Chattanooga.

However, the Stanton empire soon crumbled and he returned to his palatial home in New England.

The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad was rescued from bankruptcy in 1877 and given the distinguished title of Alabama Great Southern Railway Company. It offered service to New Orleans, Mobile, Vicksburg and other points to the south and west.

When Union Station became too congested, the AGS depot at Market and 13th Street was converted into use as the Central Passenger Station. It stood where the Southern Railway headquarters was built. It opened Sept. 16, 1888. It was taken down after the Terminal Station was built further south on Market Street. The Chattanooga headquarters for the Southern Railway was eventually built at the site of the Central Passenger Station. It was converted for residential use.

The Alabama Great Southern and the Cincinnati Southern later operated as part of the Queen and Crescent Route using the old Alabama and Chattanooga freight depot at Market and King.

When Baron Emile D'Erlanger was the chief official of the Queen and Crescent Route he made a visit to Chattanooga. A pitch was made to him to help in a drive to construct a local hospital. He pledged $5,000 and said he would have the two railroads pledge the same. The hospital was later named for him.

An old Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad building remains behind the Southern Railway headquarters at 1301 Market St. The Urban Stack hamburger place now occupies this site. Cobblestones dating to the city's earliest days are still in place as a picturesque pavement outside this quaint railroad building.

There is still track in place that crosses Market Street by the old Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad site and the old railroad baggage building. It moves on across Broad Street to the junction with the fragment of Nashville tracks at Main Street behind the chicken processing plant, but train cars no longer rumble by.

One of the most elaborate depots along the line is the stone station at Fort Payne, Ala., which has been converted to a museum. The Trenton, Ga., depot was converted for a visitor center.

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